Saving Seafood

Sea lice impact from salmon farms on wild salmon are overestimated: study

August 16, 2024 — A study, published in Reviews in Aquaculture journal, has identified that the effects of sea lice from salmon farms on wild Atlantic salmon have been overestimated.

The study reviewed the Norwegian regulatory management of the salmon farming sector and concluded that sea lice infections on farms are not associated with a measurable impact on wild salmon. Sea lice are marine parasites naturally occurring in the ocean and have co-existed with wild salmon for millions of years. Farm-raised salmon enter the ocean free of sea lice, a press release from B.C. Salmon Farmers Association states.

“This is an important finding, as it aligns with the research and data we are seeing on sea lice in Canada,” said Simon Jones, research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and co-author of the published review. “The highly variable relationship between lice levels on wild salmon and salmon aquaculture in B.C. indicates the need for a greater understanding of all factors affecting the survival of wild salmon.”

Read the full article at Aquaculture North America

Pacific Seafood, OBI, Silver Bay and Trident Land Latest USDA Salmon Contract

January 7, 2024 — Last month the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an open purchase request for wild salmon. Now, the winners of the contract have been announced.

Of the wild salmon that the USDA is seeking, 252,000 pounds is for frozen fillets in the price range of $7.10-$7.40. The USDA also requested 153,520 cases of canned pink salmon in the price range of $43.49-$53.06.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALASKA: ‘Alaska’s secret wild salmon prices hurt everybody,’ fisheries journalist says

June 27, 2023 — An opinion piece entitled “Alaska’s secret wild salmon prices hurt everybody,” written by a prominent fisheries journalist, is calling into question the transparency of how much Alaskan salmon fishermen get paid for their catch.

John Fiorillo is the executive editor of Intrafish, a global news bureau covering seafood, commercial fisheries and aquaculture industries worldwide. He argues that the secretive nature of price setting in Alaska salmon fisheries strains the relationship between fishermen and processors, and puts everyone on precarious financial footing — and it’s high time for a change.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Diners Who Order ‘Wild’ Salmon Often Get Cheaper Substitute

October 28, 2015 — That wild Alaskan salmon you ordered the last time you ate out might not be wild — or even from Alaska.

That’s the finding of a study by the conservation group Oceana, which says nearly half of the country’s favorite fish may be mislabeled and priced too high in restaurants and stores when it’s out of season.

Researchers performed DNA testing on 82 salmon samples collected in Virginia, Washington, Chicago and New York in the winter of 2013-2014.

They found 43 percent of the samples were mislabeled. The most common switch — accounting for two-thirds of the cases — was selling farmed Atlantic salmon as the more expensive wild-caught product.

A similar study by Oceana during the summertime commercial fishing season, when wild salmon is plentiful, found only 7 percent was mislabeled, suggesting supply-and-demand fuels the phenomenon.

Most of the mislabeled fish was found in restaurants, not stores — probably because large supermarkets are required to provide more robust information about the fish they are selling, the group said.

Read the full story at NBC News